Posted
by
Zonk
on Friday July 27, 2007 @02:05PM
from the like-kratos-but-with-red-hair dept.

Thursday saw the release of the Heavenly Sword demo on the PlayStation network. Kotaku has impressions from the play experience and GamesRadar offers up some helpful tips to make the most of the short playtime. From Kotaku's rundown: 'Seven minutes, and it ends just like that. No big boss fight to try out, no giant plot revelation, no finding an ancient artifact. Just, "here comes more enemies, see you in two months!" You know that feeling you get when you're about to sneeze and then can't? Exactly the feeling I got here. As for aesthetics, the graphics were solid but the framerate was erratic at times. Sound was excellent no matter which language option I chose in order to stretch out my playtime a little by pretending I was a different guy from another country. By far the best aspect of the whole demo for me, the music was completely top notch. Very atmospheric and brilliantly arranged. ' Back at Kotaku, Brian Crecente received a longer version of the demo than the one publicly available, and is now playing through it live over the internet.

I know I shouldn't, since you're just astroturfing and apparently didn't bother reading the linked comic, but...

Ninja Gaiden Sigma - A massively upgraded 1080p remake of the classic game

Really? I love the ads they've been running for it. It looks like a first-gen PS2 game, at least in the TV ads. Brilliant marketing campaign, that - provide conclusive proof that if you don't have a $3000 HDTV, you shouldn't bother with the game.

And full backwards compatibility with the largest and greatest console library of games ever

NOT ANY MORE! Way to go, Sony! Not even with the old ones, if you're planning on using that $3000 HDTV!

The graphics are jaw dropping and the combat system is very deep and satisfying. I've played it at least ten times through since last night when I downloaded it learning more and more about the counter system and the different stances.This was a good thread to learn about the demo:

But seriously... I have gotten the overall impression of the game from the demo, in spite of its length, and it's a MUST-BUY. The cutscene at the beginning is the best lip-sync job I've seen in a video game in a LONG time.... well, ever, I think.

Yeah! This is not "Goddess of War".... and even if it was, it ROCKS...:)

The game looks very, very good. The frame rate at the very start of the demo is a bit inconsistent with noticeable tearing, but through the rest of the demo the frame rate seemed rock solid. The combat has elements of button mashing, but I guess that happens with games of this nature until you get the combos down. My only other criticism is that I just couldn't get the motion controls down at all, so I turned them off. Again, that probably has more to do with my lack of mastery of the controls than anything else, but I would be curious to know if anyone else had the same problem.

The game feels very much like a ninja version of God of War, as they share many of the same elements: context sensitive mini games, vicious combat, finishing moves, swarming enemies and stunning locations. I wasn't all that excited for this game before the demo, but I am now. A definite release day purchase.

This game, beyond most, incredibly irks me. I put up with a lot of marginalizing and foolishness from video games and plots... but Heavenly Sword seems, to me, the pinnacle of what I hate about female protagonists in games. Here we have the finest example of hyper-sexualizing women in games. A woman, barely 100 pounds, swinging weapons of ungodly size and weight and crushing countless minions. Does she cover herself in protective armor to shield herself from the damaging blows of foes? Of course not, she's a woman... she wears a couple bands of fabric covering her nipples and her crotch. She's petite, nimble, sexy and a total badass too... not to mention she has the flamboyant red hair of many female video game leads.

I know this is an ongoing trend... Oni, Lara Croft, Alyx Vance, Chick from Sin Episodes, Chick from No One lives forever, Every DoA Chick and a dozen other games with female characters (Even Samus has fallen into this pit). They're all petite and totally badass. They're blatantly one dimensional... even Alyx from Half Life is pretty shallow and a generic hot chick. Heavenly Sword just gets to me, it seems like the worst of the bunch... "Let's take God of War and make it star a red haired bombshell who will kill you and fuck you before you hit the floor." How can we demand more realistic female characters in video games (male too... but that's for a different rant)? Are we doomed to play games with shallow female leads because that's what we "want"?

For the record, while writing this rant, I was contemplating genuine female leads. Many were from LucasArts adventure games (The Dig, Fate of Atlantis) and other adventure games as well. I also thought of the original Alone in the Dark... I was around 10/11 when it was released and I started thinking about what a unique character Emily Hartwood was... just the niece of a suicidal lunatic trying to find out what happened, she's obviously feminine but not sexualized .

Not to defend the fantasy stereo type but remember there is more than 1 way to fight. Men are best suited to hitting people with things, where as women are generally more agile and are better suited to using lighter weapons and avoiding direct confrontation. Think of it like an Elf fighting an Orc, one is nimble and fast, the other is huge and a brute. If the elf can keep his balance and get in lots of short blows he will win, but if the orc hits him hard then he's pretty much screwed no matter how good his

Not to defend the fantasy stereo type but remember there is more than 1 way to fight. Men are best suited to hitting people with things, where as women are generally more agile and are better suited to using lighter weapons and avoiding direct confrontation.

Even this is becoming less of a stereotype and more of a cliché. The one-on-one fighting game has suffered from this almost from day one: each game needs a female character, and oh, I know, let's make her physically weak but fast and nimble.

Men are best suited to hitting people with things, where as women are generally more agile and are better suited to using lighter weapons and avoiding direct confrontation

But the real-life differnce between the genders is clearly not as big as portrayed in games. I'm pretty big at 187 cm and around 80 kg, but even I know a few females who would probably put up a good fight against me on strength alone. In games like Street Fighter though, females are a lot weaker and faster than most males...

Well, in defense of Konoko in Oni, her character is very highly based off Motoko Kusanagi [wikipedia.org] from Ghost In The Shell, whose body is entirely cyborg/cybernetic ("cyberized" as they put it)... So, it makes a little more sense in that situation that she can carry a rocket launcher with just one arm and kick the crap out of huge armored guards and stuff. BTW, see Oni's wikipedia page [wikipedia.org] for a bit more info on how closely Oni is based on and/or inspired by Ghost In The Shell.:)

I have never played NOLF, but it looked interesting. I've always wanted to check it out.

I thought the first game was brilliant. The second one seemed to be hitting all the same notes but failed to be brilliant. I'd compare both games to Max Payne. Payne 1 was cheesy over-the-top film noir brilliance with the sequel being more meh.

What I thought made NOLF stand out against all the other shooters is how seriously the development team took the idea of telling a story. This isn't a matter of a cheesy intro and closing for a mission, everything flowed beautifully. The voice acting quality was exce

I would totally agree with Jade, as I was just about to reply to GP with that.:) She's not overly-sexualized, her main weapon is her digital camera and a staff, and her best friend is a pig. But at the same time, she still has that latino/dark-European flair to her and can kick evil-government's butt just the same.

That's funny because if you look in the early screens and graphics for that game that were put out in previews before its release, you will notice that after a certain point they started making her more "xtreme" [ign.com], they gave her green lipstick, made her slimmer, etc...

As a developer, I have to agree with you, and hope your post gets modded up. (Surprised you forgot to mentions Baldur's Gate on the PS2!) The constant hyper-sexualizing and titillation is becoming more and more obnoxious and obscene. Sadly, far too many games (and other medium such as movies) glorify violence and sex. Its a product of the culture.Unfortunately sex sells. I guess the real question is, Who is behind this constant juvenile behaviour? Is it the publishers? The developers (Design? Art?

We are not doomed to play games with shallow female leads, its worse, we are doomed to play shallow games. Male leads really aren't an inch better then the female ones, the bad guys aren't the deepest guys in the world either and the rest of the story often is just as forgettable. Its certainly nothing to be happy about, but thats just the way it currently is (yes, I miss those adventures of old days too...).I doubt we will ever see genuine female leads in games which main purpose is to slash through hordes

The problem is that video games are action movies, and you will find the same complaints about women in action movies, sans the swinging big weapons part. We need to get some games out there that aren't just action movies, and you'll start to get more defined characters than Generic Angry Bald Man and Titty McBoob. (There are a few games out there that don't do this, but they are few and far between, say like Shadow of the Colossus, where you still rescue your "princess", but the story has depth and layers

Sorry, but more than 90% of the people who play these games are horny male teenagers, and I for one would rather spend 30 hours staring at a nubile semi-dressed cutie rather than solid chain-mail. Heck, I'm re-playing FFXII and am keeping Fran as party leader just because I enjoy looking at her.I'm male, I'm driven by million of years of evolution which included horniness as a good selection behaviour. Or, if you prefer the stupid argument, that's the way God made me. Sue me.

know this is an ongoing trend... Oni, Lara Croft, Alyx Vance, Chick from Sin Episodes, Chick from No One lives forever, Every DoA Chick and a dozen other games with female characters (Even Samus has fallen into this pit). They're all petite and totally badass. They're blatantly one dimensional... even Alyx from Half Life is pretty shallow and a generic hot chick. Heavenly Sword just gets to me, it seems like the worst of the bunch... "Let's take God of War and make it star a red haired bombshell who will kill you and fuck you before you hit the floor." How can we demand more realistic female characters in video games (male too... but that's for a different rant)? Are we doomed to play games with shallow female leads because that's what we "want"?

I would agree with most of that rant except for No One Lives Forever. For starters, Archer is based off the Bond woman stereotype so of course she has to be in a catsuit. However, I thought the character was carried off with respect and intelligence. Sure, she could take more damage than a normal person but that's standard videogame logic. She didn't use brute strength in her fights, it was guns and stealth.

But it's not just the women who get the short end of the stick here. All across visual media, there'

This game, beyond most, incredibly irks me. I put up with a lot of marginalizing and foolishness from video games and plots... but Heavenly Sword seems, to me, the pinnacle of what I hate about female protagonists in games. Here we have the finest example of hyper-sexualizing women in games. A woman, barely 100 pounds, swinging weapons of ungodly size and weight and crushing countless minions. Does she cover herself in protective armor to shield herself from the damaging blows of foes? Of course not, she's

Absolutely, I would echo the same sentiment I made about female leads to males. Hulking testosterone fueled behemoths that rip and tear shit left and right (Gears of War is quite possibly the Heavenly Sword of male leads). Just as the majority of female leads are terrible role models and shallow characters... so are most males. In my studies I came across a film called Tough Guise [youtube.com], a terrific film looking at male portrayals in media and their roles for young boys in society. It's certainly an interestin

For the record, while writing this rant, I was contemplating genuine female leads. Many were from LucasArts adventure games (The Dig, Fate of Atlantis) and other adventure games as well. I also thought of the original Alone in the Dark... I was around 10/11 when it was released and I started thinking about what a unique character Emily Hartwood was... just the niece of a suicidal lunatic trying to find out what happened, she's obviously feminine but not sexualized.

Of fer crying out loud... Alyx? She's young, wears tight jeans, and appears to have a bit of an unspoken crush on Gordon. This is hardly bimbo material here. What got me was her particular backward walk, because Leanna in Dark Messiah (which is based on Source) does the *exact* same thing when you first meet her. It must be a routine in the engine.Besides, the male characters in JRPG's are generally so bishy and androgynous, that the swords look just out of place with them too.

For the record, while writing this rant, I was contemplating genuine female leads. Many were from LucasArts adventure games (The Dig, Fate of Atlantis) and other adventure games as well.

I think Beyond Good & Evil is another good example of a strong female lead that is not oversexed. And probably Trace Memory [wikipedia.org]. And I think Eternal Darkness had some strong female characters, but I can't really remember too much. Zelda is often pretty well-developed and multi-layered. You're right, these are mostly adve

I think the full Heavenly Sword has the potential to be great, but the demo is extremely disappointing. For a 1Gb download you get about 10 minutes of gameplay - the same 10 minutes that have appeared in footage at GDC & E3. While it lasts, it shows promise, but it is hardly rewarding or even indicative of the final title. With that in mind what the hell was the point of releasing this demo at all? They may as well have kept people in suspense because the demo is quite a let down.

Anyone who played the demo will tell you it's short. Kotaku published an opinion of it in where he timed himself at 7 minutes. That's with a death.Most people put it at 5 minutes time range. If anything that's a red light. Now length of a demo has no bearing on the worth of the demo but the fact that you have a game of X length, and the most you're willing to show is 5 minutes should set off the warnings of anyone but the most die hard fans. What aren't they showing? The fact that 90 percent of the ba

On top of the short demo, I didn't like it. I usually love hack n slash games, and God of War was a good game.But this... The whole 'hit the button during the action scene' thing felt sloppy. In GoW, when you hit the button properly, you saw the effect immediately. This leaves you to wonder if it worked or not for a while, first. A failure to hit the button looked like success at first to me as well.

And then the fight... I could hardly tell what was going on. The camera was so far back that I couldn'

Is there a name for this yet? How about "cut scene wackamole"You're right it was very sloppy. There was no challenge to it.

If you let her stand still she'll block automatically. Watch for a guy to go blue and hit [triangle] to counter. Then pick other buttons to continue as a combo. Starting combos with [square] (which doesn't counter) is more problematic, you'll need to make sure no else is within range, or that they dude you're going after isn't too close.